The Wanderers - Robert Buchanan

God’s blessing on poor ship-folk! Peace and prayer
     Fall on their eyelids till they close in sleep!
God send them gentle winds and summer air,
     For the great sea is treacherous and deep.
     Light me up lamps on every ocean-steep,—
Beacon the shallows with a living care.
     Ay me! the wind cries and the wild waves leap,
And on they drive—God knows—they know not—where.
     Come Poets! come, O Prophets! yea, disown
The phantasies and phantoms ye pursue!
     Lights! lights! with fatal snares the sea is sown.
Guide the poor ship-folk lone beneath the blue.
     Nay, do not light for Lazarus alone,
But light for Dives and the Devil too.

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Robert Buchanan (1841 - 1901) Scotland